This paper describes a participatory design-oriented study of an ambient assisted living system for monitoring the daily activities of elderly residents. The work presented addresses these questions 1) What daily activities the elderly participants like to be monitored, 2) With whom they would want to share this monitored data and 3) How a monitoring system for the elderly should be designed. For this purpose, this paper discusses the study results and participatory design techniques used to exemplify and understand desired ambient-assisted living scenarios and information sharing needs. Particularly, an interactive dollhouse is presented as a method for including the elderly in the design and requirements gathering process for residential monitoring. The study results indicate the importance of exemplifying ambient-assisted living scenarios to involve the elderly and so to increase acceptance and utility of such systems. The preliminary studies presented show that the participants were willing to have most of their daily activities monitored. However, they mostly wanted to keep control over their own data and share this information with medical specialists and particularly not with their fellow elderly neighbours.
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Technology in general, and assistive technology in particular, is considered to be a promising opportunity to address the challenges of an aging population. Nevertheless, in health care, technology is not as widely used as could be expected. In this chapter, an overview is given of theories and models that help to understand this phenomenon. First, the design of (assistive) technologies will be addressed and the importance of human-centered design in the development of new assistive devices will be discussed. Also theories and models are addressed about technology acceptance in general. Specific attention will be given to technology acceptance in healthcare professionals, and the implementation of technology within healthcare organizations. The chapter will be based on the state of the art of scientific literature and will be illustrated with examples from our research in daily practice considering the different perspectives of involved stakeholders.
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Background: There are indications that older adults who suffer from poor balance have an increased risk for adverse health outcomes, such as falls and disability. Monitoring the development of balance over time enables early detection of balance decline, which can identify older adults who could benefit from interventions aimed at prevention of these adverse outcomes. An innovative and easy-to-use device that can be used by older adults for home-based monitoring of balance is a modified bathroom scale. Objective: The objective of this paper is to study the relationship between balance scores obtained with a modified bathroom scale and falls and disability in a sample of older adults. Methods: For this 6-month follow-up study, participants were recruited via physiotherapists working in a nursing home, geriatricians, exercise classes, and at an event about health for older adults. Inclusion criteria were being aged 65 years or older, being able to stand on a bathroom scale independently, and able to provide informed consent. A total of 41 nursing home patients and 139 community-dwelling older adults stepped onto the modified bathroom scale three consecutive times at baseline to measure their balance. Their mean balance scores on a scale from 0 to 16 were calculated—higher scores indicated better balance. Questionnaires were used to study falls and disability at baseline and after 6 months of follow-up. The cross-sectional relationship between balance and falls and disability at baseline was studied using t tests and Spearman rank correlations. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to study the relationship between balance measured at baseline and falls and disability development after 6 months of follow-up.
HET 'POST INTENSIVE CARE SYNDROOM'; LANGDURIGE GEVOLGEN VAN EEN INTENSIVE CARE OPNAME Dankzij verbeteringen in de zorg overleven steeds meer patiënten de behandeling op een intensive care (IC). Keerzijde hiervan zijn de lichamelijke en mentale klachten (Post Intensive Care Syndroom - PICS) waarvoor patiënten vaak langdurige revalidatie nodig hebben i.v.m. verminderde belastbaarheid en vermoeidheid. Tijdens de Covid-19 pandemie blijkt dat relatief veel IC-patiënten een migratieachtergrond en/of lage sociaaleconomische status hebben en dat een grote groep geen nazorg ontvangt. E-HEALTH ALS ONDERSTEUNING VAN DE ZORGVERLENER: HOE ZET JE HET IN? Om de Juiste Zorg op de Juiste Plek te geven wordt eHealth met coaching en telemonitoring steeds vaker ingezet bij revalidatie in de thuissituatie. Atris is een voorbeeld van een toepassing waarbij via sensoren het activiteitenniveau en hartslag gemeten worden. Atris is een veelbelovende toepassing voor patiënten met PICS maar fysiotherapeuten hebben nog beperkt ervaring met het integreren van eHealth in de behandelaanpak en beschikken over onvoldoende kennis en vaardigheden om de applicaties optimaal in te zetten en zorg op afstand te verlenen. E-HEALTH ALS ONDERSTEUNING VAN DE PATIËNT: JUISTE ZORG OP DE JUISTE PLEK VOOR IEDEREEN? eHealth applicaties dienen de zelfredzaamheid, zelfstandigheid en eigen regie van patiënten te bevorderen. Bij patiënten die thuis herstellen na een IC opname kan eHealth door gebruik van continue monitoring van vitale parameters, patiënten ondersteunen door het gevoel van veiligheid te vergroten en inzicht te verschaffen in belasting en belastbaarheid. Echter, bestaande applicaties zijn momenteel niet voor iedereen toegankelijk zoals mensen met een migratieachtergrond of beperkte gezondheidsvaardigheden. Het doel van het Lifeline project is om, in een consortium met professionals vanuit de technologie, revalidatie en maatschappelijke organisaties, de bestaande Atris applicatie door te ontwikkelen richting een slimme, gebruiksvriendelijke en toegankelijke app en toe te passen in de fysiotherapeutische behandeling van patiënten met PICS.
